Romance dashed by vulnerability in short film "Derailed" from JC actor
Review: Film speaks eloquently to experience of dating marginalized and self-aware
If you have any kind of marginalized identity due to arbitrary reasons beyond your control and a certain level of self-awareness about that, you may recognize this scenario ... you look around, notice something that makes people vulnerable to some indignity or unnecessary stress they shouldn’t have to deal with, you comment on it to someone you’re in the company of; and if it’s a person you have feelings for, how they react, how they genuinely react to that plight, could make a world of difference to your relationship.
That’s what the short film “Derailed” from Jersey City resident and actor Rachel Handler explores. An amputee who utilizes a prosthetic leg, Handler was featured in a previous Chilltown Blues piece talking about her role on AMC’s “Interview with the Vampire” as “Peg Leg Doris.”
She pens “Derailed” based in part on true events, Handler says, as well as the actual infrastructure of Astoria, Queens’ subway system — which largely lacks ADA-compliant elevators. As the short film from LC Films ramps up for the festival circuit, I was able to see it beforehand.
It’s beautifully shot, utilizing the space and sounds of the subway station, the stairs and a game Handler, who’s willing to show that navigating the station isn’t remotely as simple as it is for her character as (Isabelle’s) would-be partner, Jason (played by Wasim Azeez).
The film is most specifically about this lack of accessibility; Isabelle carries a certain weight that isn’t overtly apparent until something in the world-at-large reminds her of it.
What starts out the way a romantic comedy often does, with a breeziness and two characters whose time together audiences would automatically root for, gradually deflates. But not without effectively — particularly for a short film just under five minutes long — showing us the positives two people were building on here. The framework of one of these people, here Isabelle, recounting story of “would-be” perfect date to a friend (here played by Margo Gignac) is also used to interesting effect.
It shows how hard it is for the kind of simple romantic comedy formula to work in a world where one partner gets something the other doesn’t — the extra weight that someone else shouldn’t have to carry, particularly when the Americans with Disabilities Act and other civil rights laws, along with a plethora of studies on the books, exist that speak to why ensuring accessibility or enforcement that protects people from harm shouldn’t be “extra.”
“Derailed” is breezy to digest but not light on depth and resonates on many levels.
Learn more about the film at derailedshort.com.
